A sex tycoon who owns a string of massage parlors in Thailand is boiling with anger and indignation against the Bangkok police.
With nearly 2,000 young women working for him, Chuwit Kamolvisit says he plied police for years with cash, Rolex watches, European cars and free services at his six parlors, with names like Emmanuelle, Victoria's Secret, and Honolulu Love Boat.
And what does he get in return? Harassment and indifference when he got into trouble with the law for employing underage girls.
So Chuwit, 42, became a crusader for civic virtue, a celebrity avenger, holding daily news conferences to reveal charges of police greed, threatening to name the high-ranking policemen he says were beneficiaries of his generosity.
"This isn't a love comedy. It's a war movie. Somebody has to die in the end," the trim, mustachioed entrepreneur, who favors pink shirts and flashy ties, told The Associated Press in an interview at one of his clubs, Copa Cabana.
Thais are hanging on his every word, eagerly awaiting the latest episode of Chuwit's serial expose. Suddenly, the news channels and front pages of Thai newspapers have become spicier.
"Chuwit has become a public icon," wrote Suthichai Yoon, the editor of The Nation, an English-language daily.
Chuwit has not provided a shred of evidence to back his claims. But in a country where police corruption is legendary, the credibility of Bangkok's officers is much the same of its massage parlor owners. No surprise then that the Thai public are enjoying watching the brown-uniformed force squirm under Chuwit's torrential allegations on national television.
"Once he may have been a `bad boy' ready to cut corners and grease palms ... but when he decided to go for broke against corrupt police, Chuwit overnight became the darling of the urban middle class, who saw him as the outlet for their entrenched frustrations against `crooks in uniform,'" Suthichai wrote.
Chuwit's troubles -- and those of the force -- started when police arrested him on May 2 on charges of unlawfully demolishing a downtown Bangkok block housing scores of bars and shops to make way for another massage parlor, the Taj Mahal.
On May 3, he was charged with running a brothel using underage girls at the Honolulu Love Boat. He could face 20 years in prison if convicted.
In Thailand, a massage can mean two things -- a genuine oil rub by hard-knuckled middle-aged masseurs, or the massage from a young woman that usually leads to sex in a back room.
But what happens at the parlor is between the masseuse and the client, Chuwit says.
He claims to have spent about US$289,156 each month in payoffs to policemen. He said he had even treated them to expensive wines and house renovations..
"Enough is enough. I'm a mad dog now," he said. "If they can't help me out of something trivial like this, I see no point why I should continue paying it."
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS